North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Folks,
After picking up my son from football practice yesterday afternoon, I swung 
by the big Methodist church, down on that end of town, where they've got a 
half-dozen or so nice big Kousa dogwoods planted.  They have heavy fruit 
loads this  year, which are ripening and beginning to drop.  Picked up 
about a half a plastic grocery bag full of fruits.  Tastier and less gritty 
than they have been in years past - perhaps they've been watering a little 
more this summer than in years past.
I've never really paid much attention to the trees when in bloom, and 
haven't really looked to see if they're grafted specimens or just seedlings 
-  the "Milky Way" strain, is composed of seedlings grown from a group of 
15-20 select seedlings that were selected years ago for their particularly 
floriferous habit.
One of the trees seems to produce a significantly larger fruit, and I may 
have to snitch a cutting or two this winter and try my hand at grafting it 
- don't know if it's a "Big Apple", a seedling with larger fruit size, or 
perhaps just has a better microenvironment.

Anyway, they're pretty tasty - and no one I've shared the fruits with today 
at work has turned up their nose, or gone spitting to the garbage can, like 
they often do with the Cornus mas fruits.



Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY